Tuesday, March 22, 2005
~ too much employee turnover at law firms and businesses ~
Al Nye the Lawyer Guy brought to my attention a useful series on employee turnover at lawfirms, at Alan Maven's site. Lowering employee "churn" is dependent primarily on the company's or law office's relationship with its managers.
Ron Hyndman, a Canadian attorney, adds a cynical comment, no doubt drawn from his own observations within a large firm.
When the store managers were better chosen, better equipped and better encouraged, they provided an environment where the overall employee churn dropped by a third.
The analysis is derived from the functioning of Domino's Pizza but Mavens nicely draws a parallel to lawfirms and asks readers to provide any experience to the contrary.
And yet law firms do almost nothing in terms of training, equipping and rewarding their partners in terms of their roles as managers of associates and employees. In fact, I don't think I am aware of ever having heard of a firm that had, as part of their partnership track, a requirement that associates undergo any kind of training in personnel, project or group management.
Ron Hyndman, a Canadian attorney, adds a cynical comment, no doubt drawn from his own observations within a large firm.
The incentive to manage well just isn't there. Their incentive, as they see it, is to do whatever it takes to jack up earnings today, so that they increase the draw tomorrow. "The long term? heck, in the long term we're all dead."
